We can’t have a strong country without strong infrastructure.
Earlier this week, Josh and Vanessa Ellis and their 8-month-old son Hudson were killed after debris from a highway overpass in Bonney Lake, Washington fell onto their pickup truck as they were driving through.
According to authorities, a large piece of concrete barrier fell from the overpass onto the Ellis’ truck. The overpass was undergoing a construction project at the time.
The tragic deaths of Josh, Vanessa and Hudson Ellis are yet another reminder that US infrastructure is literally crumbling.
Take our nation’s bridges and tunnels for example.
Right now, there are over 600,000 bridges in the US that have been labeled as “structurally deficient.”
In 2007, a bridge collapse on I-35 in Minneapolis killed 13 people and injured 145 others.
In 2013, a bridge on I-5 in Washington State collapsed, sending three people plunging into a river. Luckily, they were all rescued.
And, in 2006, a section of concrete ceiling panels in Boston’s Fort Point Channel tunnel fell on a car, killing a passenger in that car and severely injuring the driver.
But it’s not just our bridges and tunnels that are in disrepair.